Monday, March 24, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Young, 78, who spoke to reporters via speaker telephone from his Detroit apartment, said he is chairman of a 16-person group aiming to win one of three city licenses to operate a casino.
His group, Paradise Valley LLC, is named after the black entertainment district that anchored the lower east side neighborhood where Young grew up until the Chrysler Freeway was built through it in the late 1950s.
"I believe that casinos can play a key part in helping to rebuild this city," Young said.
"I'm not saying that casinos alone can do that. But three casinos operating properly in this city could be a considerable building block for new employment ... It would increase city prominence as a destination point for conventions and other people."
The presence of Young, who served as mayor from 1973 to 1993 and was an advocate for casinos in Detroit during that time, means that at least eight developers are now vying for three casino licenses.
The law approved in November by Michigan voters specifically grants preference for two licenses to Greektown Casino LLC and Atwater Entertainment Inc. If that preference stands, as Young said it should, his group will compete against the rest for just one license.
But Young said his chances are as good if not better than other casino developers.
"I gather that public reaction ... has been very positive to this proposal," he said.
Young said his group is talking with casino operators in and outside Las Vegas about a partnership, but he declined to name the operators. He also said the group is evaluating several sites for a casino, but he would not say where.
The Sunday news conference marked Young's first public activity since he emerged earlier this month from what he described as a 21-day hospital stay. Young was treated for benign prostatic hypertrophy, which results from an increase in the number of cells or an enlargement of the prostate gland because of aging.
A Young spokesman said the mayor didn't appear in person because he wanted to show the casino is a group effort - three other Paradise members were present at the event - and because Young is still recovering from the hospital stay.
"I'm still recuperating," Young said. "I'm coming along pretty well."
Young said his Paradise group meets requirements he set because its membership is mostly from Detroit and mostly black - 85 percent black, he said.
Other group members include John Simpson, a Detroit attorney who is serving as group president; JoAnn Watson, former president of the Detroit chapter of the NAACP; Elliott Hall, a Ford Motor Co. vice-president; and Ford dealer Nathan Conyers, the brother of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit.
Young said the finances for the project will be put up by the casino operator they select as a partner.
Mayor Dennis Archer said Friday he was "not surprised at all" that Young was pursuing a casino license.
"What did surprise me is that he was not included with the presumptive investors," Archer said, referring to the Greektown and Atwater development groups.
Archer added that Young "comes in on the same equal footing" as other developers.
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